Land-based sediment sources and transport to southwest Puerto Rico coral reefs after Hurricane Maria, May 2017 to June 2018

Takesue, Renee K.; Sherman, Clark; Ramirez, Natalia I.; Reyes, Aaron O.; Cheriton, Olivia M.; Ríos, Roberto Viqueira; Storlazzi, Curt D.

doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2021.107476

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…The degree to which terrestrial sediments discharged from watersheds can potentially influence coral reefs depends not only on watershed processes controlling erosion, deposition and discharge but also on the level of connectivity between watersheds and coral reefs (Bainbridge et al, 2018). Throughout the USVI and PR, studies have shown that watersheds can exert an influence on coral environments through the following approaches: (a) spatial distribution of coral species ranked by perceived level of sediment tolerance in relation to distance from watershed outlets (e.g., Acevedo et al, 1989); (b) a proven temporal synchrony between measured seasonal watershed runoff and isotopic signals of dissolved inorganic carbon in coral cores (Moyer and Grottoli, 2011); (c) decreases in net skeletal growth rates determined from coral cores associated with seasonal increases in watershed runoff (Miller and Cruise, 1995); (d) mineralogical fingerprinting of sediment sources (Takesue et al, 2021); and (e) sediment plume mapping using remotely sensed techniques (Hernández et al, 2020). However, none of these studies have demonstrated temporal trends in coral reef conditions in response to changes in sediment discharge corresponding to varying land use, extreme events, or the implementation of erosion mitigation strategies.…”

Section: General Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Estimates of the amount of sediment mobilized by landslides during Hurricane María indicate that landsliding is more important than surface erosion within RLGB (Ramos-Scharrón et al, 2021). In addition, recent geochemical evidence has proven a connection between sediments being delivered by watersheds draining to the coastline ∼15 km east from coral reefs off Guánica Bay (Takesue et al, 2021). This sediment connectivity had been recognized only anecdotally in the past (Acevedo et al, 1989).…”

Section: Río Loco-guánica Bay Puerto Ricomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing Effects of Sediment Delivery to Coral Reefs: A Caribbean Watershed Perspective

Rogers

Ramos‐Scharrón

2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Coral reefs in the western Atlantic and Caribbean are deteriorating primarily from disease outbreaks, increasing seawater temperatures, and stress due to land-based sources of pollutants including sediments associated with land use and dredging. Sediments affect corals in numerous ways including smothering, abrasion, shading, and inhibition of coral recruitment. Sediment delivery resulting in deposition and water quality deterioration can cause degradation at the spatial scale of corals or entire reefs. We still lack rigorous long-term studies of coral cover and community composition before, during and after major sediment stress, and evidence of recovery after watershed management actions. Here we present an overview of the effects of terrestrial sediments on corals and coral reefs, with recent advances in approaches to watershed assessment relevant to the delivery of sediments to these ecosystems. We present case studies of northeastern Caribbean watersheds to illustrate challenges and possible solutions and to draw conclusions about the current state of knowledge of sediment effects on coral reefs. With a better understanding of erosion and the pathways of sediment discharge to nearshore reefs, there is the increased potential for management interventions.

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Section: General Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Río Loco-guánica Bay Puerto Ricomentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Effects of Sediment Delivery to Coral Reefs: A Caribbean Watershed Perspective

Rogers

Ramos‐Scharrón

2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…Particularly, the coastal environment of Florida is advantageous to tidal flat accretion, which makes this state an ideal place to implement the case study. First, Florida is the most hurricane-prone state in the US [36,37], and numerous studies [38][39][40][41][42][43][44] agree that hurricanes could bring in tremendous sediments along the coast. Second, over a half of the coastal wetlands in the conterminous US are distributed along the Gulf Coast [45].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Dynamic Changes of Tidal Flats in Florida from 1984 to 2020

Liu

2021

Geographies

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Tidal flats are playing a critical role in the coastal environment, which mainly rely on satellite images to map the distribution on large spatiotemporal scales. Much effort has been made to monitor and analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of tidal flats in order to provide worthwhile references for scientists and lawmakers. Instead of considering the dynamics of tidal flats only, this study implemented a series of comprehensive analyses on the tidal flats along the coast of Florida during the period 1984–2020. First, the analyses on the pixel level examined the spatiotemporal characteristics of tidal flat dynamics and the interactions with lands and permanent water. Second, the contiguous pixels of tidal flats were assembled as objects, and two geometric attributes were calculated and used to track the temporal patterns of tidal flat dynamics on this level. Finally, the Mann–Kendall test and Sen’s slope estimator were applied to identify and quantify the significant trends of tidal flat dynamics on the two levels. The results highlighted the differences in tidal flat distributions and dynamics between the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast, which further verified effective GIS representations and analyses that could be applied to other coastal studies.

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“…The coral reefs condition in the Caribbean has declined because of the acute and direct effects of human activities, including eutrophication and dredging. These disturbances have produced a high decrease in coral cover, accompanied by changes in the relative abundance of coral species, reduced species diversity, and a shift to slower-growing coral species which is directly related to the tolerance of individual species to sediment stress ( Larsen & Webb, 2009 ; Ramos-Scharrón, Torres-Pulliza & Hernández-Delgado, 2015 ; Takesue et al, 2021 ). The negative effects on corals are exacerbated by stresses from global changes, such as bleaching in response to rising sea temperatures ( Hughes et al, 2018a ; Hughes et al, 2018b ), reduced calcification in organisms due to ocean acidification ( Albright et al, 2016 ; Courtney et al, 2020 ), and more frequent storm damage ( Manfrino et al, 2013 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A decade of study on the condition of western Cuban coral reefs, with low human impact

Caballero-Aragón,

Perera-Valderrama,

Cobián-Rojas

et al. 2023

PeerJ

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Background The long-time study of coral reefs with low human impacts can provide information on the effects of regional pressures like climate change, and is an opportunity to document how these pressures are reflected in coral communities. An example of minimal local anthropogenic impacts are the Guanahacabibes coral reefs, located in the westernmost region of Cuba. The objectives of this study were: to evaluate the temporal variability of six benthic biological indicators of coral reefs, and to explore the possible relationship between predictive abiotic variables and biological response variables. Methods Four coral reef sites were sampled between 2008 and 2017, to analyze biological indicators (living coral cover, fleshy algae index, coral species richness, coral species abundance, coral trait groups species abundance, Functional Reef Index). Seven abiotic variables (wave exposure, sea surface temperature, degree heating week, chlorophyll-a concentration, particulate organic carbon, photosynthetically available radiation, and the diffuse attenuation coefficient) were compiled between 2007 and 2016, from remote sensing datasets, to analyze their relationship with the biological indicators. Permanova statistical analysis was used to evaluate trends in biological variables between sites and years, and Routine Analysis Based on Linear Distances (DISTLM) was used to explore some dependencies between biotic and abiotic variables. Results We found significant variability in the temporal analysis, with a decrease in living coral cover, a decline in the predominance of the branching and massive framework reef-building species, a decline in Orbicella species abundance, and an increase in the fleshy algae index. Some abiotic variables (average of degree heating weeks, standard deviation of the diffuse attenuation coefficient, average of the sea surface temperature, among others) significantly explained the variability of biological indicators; however, determination coefficients were low. Conclusions Certain decrease in the functionality of the coral reef was appreciated, taking into account the predominance of secondary and nom-massive framework reef-building species in the last years. A weak association between abiotic and biological variables was found in the temporal analysis. The current scenario of the condition of the coral reefs seems to be regulated by the global effects of climate change, weakly associated effects, and in longer terms.

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Land-based sediment sources and transport to southwest Puerto Rico coral reefs after Hurricane Maria, May 2017 to June 2018

Cited by 13 publications

References 68 publications

Assessing Effects of Sediment Delivery to Coral Reefs: A Caribbean Watershed Perspective

Assessing Effects of Sediment Delivery to Coral Reefs: A Caribbean Watershed Perspective

The Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Dynamic Changes of Tidal Flats in Florida from 1984 to 2020

A decade of study on the condition of western Cuban coral reefs, with low human impact

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